THIS WEEK AT THE VOICE FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2025
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by Susan Dyer Reynolds
Editor in Chief, The Voice of San Francisco
As Liz Le recently reported in The Voice, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Board of Supervisors want to move the unspent $200 million-plus from the health-care mandate fund to the city’s general fund to help patch a $1 billion city budget deficit. In 2022, the city’s Health Commission decided unused funds would be transferred to the city’s general fund rather than be kept indefinitely. Insiders say Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Board, who approved the current two-year budget last June, want to use $200 to $240 million of those transferred funds to address the ever-ballooning shortfall.
So, what is the health-care mandate? In January 2008, the voter-approved San Francisco Health Care Ordinance went into effect, requiring any business with more than 20 employees to set aside money for their workers’ health care. According to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, “employers impose surcharges at their discretion, and the city neither requires nor prohibits them,” meaning businesses that do add them to your bill are doing so to cover the expense of complying with the Health Care Ordinance.
Employers can spend the set-aside money on health insurance, individual health savings accounts or a third program, run by the city, called Healthy San Francisco, which provides low-cost care to San Franciscans provided they’re within city limits. The problem is, many of these employees qualify for either MediCal or Covered California (our state’s version of the Affordable Care Act). If you’ve ever seen commercials for Covered California, they target low-wage workers with taglines like “you can get a plan for $10 a month” (that is, of course, because Californians who pay a lot more are subsidizing those discounted plans).
Another issue? Many workers who have access to health-care mandate funds either don’t know it is available or simply don’t use it. In 2022, the city’s Health Commission decided the unused money would be transferred to the city’s general fund, where it’s been tempting politicians ever since — especially now that it has swelled to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.
The most likely place you’ve noticed the surcharge is at restaurants. Most diners, especially those from out-of-town, don’t like paying the fee on top of a tip. Server friends tell me that patrons leave less or mistake the surcharge for an automatic gratuity and skip the tip altogether. So, employees aren’t using the
health-care funds, tipped workers say it sometimes affects their bottom line, customers don’t like paying the “mandate” (though technically you don’t have to, as Liz found out), businessowners are stuck trying to navigate the system, and city leaders are twirling their Snidley Whiplash moustaches thinking of ways to
spend it. That makes me, and I’m sure most of you, want to pay the mandate even less.
What’s the solution? Do away with the health care mandate altogether. It’s time to send a message to City Hall: stop raiding the taxpayer piggy bank and learn to spend within your means.
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Top News
CITY HALL
Mandelman: Supervisors to ‘avoid live wires’ in commission reform
Remaining changes might still be considered excessive by some stakeholders.
by Mike Ege
“I hope that members of the task force will not take offense, if I say, from the outset, that it is highly unlikely that I, or any other member of the word of supervisors, will introduce that particular charter amendment, or that this board would send that particular charter amendment on to the voters in November,” Mandelman told colleagues at the meeting …
CITY HALL
City Hall to tap $200M unused health care mandate dollars to fill budget gap
San Francisco to use unused health funds to offset $1B deficit
by Liz Le
POLITICS
California school districts issue thousands of pink slips to close growing budget deficits
At least 5,000 school employees received preliminary layoff notices as school districts try to close large budget deficits. Most pink slips went to classified employees, not teachers.
by Diana Lambert
Quote of the week
“Too expensive, too slow, and too political.”
—Daniel Lurie on the city’s broken contracting system, in an appearance before the Board of Supervisors, in “Mayor to Board of Supervisors: Tighten up the bureaucracy with leaner contracting system, shorter ballot, and more accountability”
Nomi toon
In Case You Missed It
NEWS
San Francisco receives $100M from state for additional behavioral health beds
City will be able to nearly double locked bed capacity and create a centralized hub for public health services.
by Susan Dyer Reynolds
EDUCATION
Failing the honest equity test, again
SFUSD’s new eighth-grade Algebra 1 policy penalizes ready students by forcing them to double their math load. This is not effective policy, it’s ideological coercion.
by Elizabeth Statmore
A&E
Sherlock rules the domain
The latest reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s gifted detective proves the character’s durability.
by Michael Snyder
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EVENTS
Out and about March 19–25, 2026
What to do this weekend and beyond
By Lynette Majer
Managing Editor, The Voice of San Francisco
Here are my picks if you need some ideas for how to spend the next few glorious days. There are some classical stage productions, some outdoor activities, some exciting lighting events, dance, and more.
Thursday, March 19
Lead Me Home, a 2021 Netflix documentary filmed in San Francisco and nominated for Best Documentary Short, following the lives of those experiencing homelessness on the West Coast over a three-year period, will be screened tonight. Directed by Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Director John Shenk, there will be a postscreening discussion with Beth Stokes, executive director of Episcopal Community Services in San Francisco and an audience Q.&A., followed by a catered informal reception of tasty bites from Conquering Homelessness through Employment in the Food Services workforce development training program. 6 p.m. at Manny’s. Tickets: $18 and change.
Based on Cervantes’s literary masterpiece, Helgi Tomasson’s and Yuri Possokhov’s San Francisco Ballet production brings together artistry, characters, and an enchanting tale of comedy and romance with athletic virtuosity that has consistency captivated worldwide audiences. 7:30 p.m. at the War Memorial Opera House through March 29. Tickets from $288.
Take the family to Light Play Studio which opens today, and discover the magic of light, color, and perception. Don’t miss Gallery 3, where you can immerse yourself in a new mural that plays with optical illusion. Tickets from $30.
Friday, March 20
After three years of darkness, The Bay Lights will return tonight. Join Illuminate’s Ben Davis and Bay Lights artist Leo Villareal for the lighting celebration in the Ferry Building and after-party and benefit at SHACK15. 7–11 p.m. Tickets $200, or free viewing along the Embarcadero.
After the Magic Theatre’s premiere of Richard II in 2024, Macbeth is up next, set in 1970s New York and featuring an all-star cast in a performance delivering a “fast, bloody, gritty, and fun story of murderous ambition.” 8 p.m. (4 p.m. Sunday) through April 5. Tickets from $35.
The Paul Taylor Dance New York-based company will perform its groundbreaking modern dance combining Taylor’s canon with new pieces by leading choreographers to deliver “athletic precision, expressive movement, and unforgettable choreography.” Taylor originally performed in the companies of Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and George Balanchine before founding his own in 1954. 7:30 p.m. at the Presidio Theatre. Tickets from $50.
Saturday, March 21
India Basin Waterfront Park will host Rec Fest, an afternoon of live performances, a D.J., dance fitness, skateboarding, a perinatal zone, kayaking, archery, jump rope, cornhole, disc golf, a community row day with Rocking the Boat, food for sale at The Food Pavilion, and more, including a public art reveal. Noon to 4 p.m. Free admission.
Pick your very own pocket full of posies at Tulip Day, where over 80,000 tulips will cover Union Square in celebration of spring, which officially began on Friday. NB: This is a very popular event, so go early and take Muni. 1–4:30 p.m. Free.
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